


No One Compares To You

by rainsoakedshoes



Series: The Tale Of Reckless Love [4]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Serial Killers, Character Death, F/M, First Meetings, Murder, Possessive Behavior, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unhealthy Relationships, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-16
Updated: 2014-10-16
Packaged: 2018-02-21 09:51:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2463965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainsoakedshoes/pseuds/rainsoakedshoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lydia and Derek's first meeting in New York</p><p>***</p><p>Once Derek started noticing things about Lydia he couldn’t stop.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No One Compares To You

**Author's Note:**

> if it wasnt obvious from the summary, this is a prequel to the rest of the series.

She was too clean to be a street kid, too put together to be a run of the mill streetwalker, and no self-respecting high end escort would be caught dead in a place like Void.

The first time she had come into the bar Derek had assumed she was some Upper East Side brat looking to slum it and piss off daddy. But then she became a regular, it was hard for Derek to miss her flaming red hair and smile that lured all the guys in. He learned her name was Lydia, although every man she met while sitting at the bar was given a different name, and that she had moved to New York from California.

Lydia went home with a different guy every night she came to the bar. She always picked up people who were new to the city or on holiday, she’d told Isaac, one of the other bar tenders, that she liked meeting people who were new like her. Derek didn’t think much of it, they had tons of people in every night who were just looking for anonymous sex, and he wouldn’t have thought about it at all if it hadn’t been for Isaac whining that Lydia would never go home with him. It wasn’t until one of their regulars went missing after leaving with Lydia, and turned up dead a few days after, that Derek started to pay more attention to her.

Once Derek started noticing things about Lydia he couldn’t stop.

He noticed the way she made sure the men she left with were always drunker than she was. He noticed the lies she told and how flawlessly they left her mouth. He noticed the slim flick knife that she kept in her purse (for when she had to catch the subway at night she told Kira, one of the waitresses). He noticed that she kept her favourite leather gloves on her even when it started getting warmer out. He noticed the way she reacted ever so slightly whenever police sirens went off on the street outside.

He noticed other things about her too.

He noticed how her smile lit up her whole face. He noticed how she always dressed well in clothes that showed off her figure. He noticed that she would step in and stop guys from harassing other women at the bar. He noticed that she had a sharp mind and a quick wit. He noticed that she loved people lavishing attention on her. He noticed the way her eyes narrowed in anger whenever a man put his hands on her without her permission.

Derek was fascinated with Lydia and he wanted to know if his suspicions about her were true.

One night, near closing time, Lydia left the bar alone. Derek got Isaac to cover for him and ducked out quickly after her.

“Lydia!” Derek called after her.

Lydia stopped and turned around, folding her arms close to her body, closing herself off from him.   

“What?” Lydia’s voice was cool and clipped.

Derek caught up with her, a smile stretched across his face.

“I was hoping we could talk,” he said.

“I was sitting in the bar for hours and you chose now to talk?” Lydia raised an eyebrow at him.

“I didn’t think you’d want anyone listening in on this conversation,” Derek shoved his hands in his jacket pockets and shrugged.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lydia took a step back and her hand went to her bag that was dangling from her shoulder.

“No need to go for the knife,” Derek told her. “And yes I know about the knife you carry with you for _protection_. But I was wondering, would your knife blade match the wounds they found on Ronnie’s body? You remember Ronnie, don’t you? You left with him a few weeks back, they found him floating in the river three days later.”

“If you’re accusing me of killing Ronnie,” Lydia began.

“Oh I don’t care that Ronnie’s dead,” Derek said. It was true, Ronnie was a piece of trash who harassed the women at the bar, left his first ex-wife with two kids and did a stint in Rikers for beating his second wife half to death. “I just want to know if you’re like me.”

“Like you?” Lydia was still suspicious but she unfolded her arms and didn’t seem like she wanted to run anymore.

“How about we go for a walk?” Derek suggested.

Derek was taking a gamble. If he was wrong and Lydia wasn’t responsible for Ronnie’s death (and possibly others) then he was risking exposing his own crimes. However Derek was good at reading people and he was confident in his evaluation of Lydia.

As they walked Derek pulled a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of his pocket. He offered one to Lydia but she wrinkled her nose at him and shook her head.

“What did you mean ‘like you’?” Lydia asked after they had walked half a block.

“A killer,” Derek smirked at her when she stopped walking, his bluntness had caught her off guard.

“I don’t believe you,” Lydia said and started to walk again, faster this time.

“This alley we’re coming up to,” Derek pointed with his lit cigarette. “A month ago they found a woman’s body, she had been strangled with a piece of thin wire. Something like this,” Derek pulled a garrotte from his pocked. Lydia stopped again to see what he was talking about.

She stared at him for a few moments, studying his face.

“The knife in my purse wouldn’t match Ronnie’s wounds,” Lydia said. “The knife that matches is at the bottom of the Hudson. The knife in my bag is new.”

“Is your real name even Lydia?” Derek asked, mouth twitching up into a smile.

“Yes it is,” Lydia returned the smile. There was a beat of silence. “So where do we go from here?” Lydia asked.

“My place?” Derek quirked an eyebrow.

Lydia rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Not gonna happen,” she patted Derek on the chest. “I mean do we just go on like everything is normal? Like we didn’t just confess to killing people?”

“We could do that, if you want,” Derek told her. “Or…”

“Or what?”

Derek flicked his cigarette butt onto the sidewalk and ground it out under his foot. “I wouldn’t mind seeing how much damage you and that little knife of yours can do,” he admitted.

Lydia weighed her options, she barely knew Derek and didn’t trust him, but he did intrigue her, she wanted to know more about how he had figured her out. Ultimately her curiosity won out over her mistrust.

“Friday night, 8pm” Lydia said. “I’ll meet you at Void.”

Lydia turned on heel and walked away from Derek without another word. Derek watched her go, her hips swaying and high heels clicking on the concrete.

*

Friday was actually Derek’s day off, so when he showed up at the bar anyway Isaac started to tease him about being a workaholic.

“I’m meeting someone, actually,” Derek told the younger man, pointedly looking at the door and not at Isaac.

“Does Derek Hale, the same man who turns down almost every woman who hits on him, finally have a date?”

“Something like that.” Derek picked up the glass of whiskey Isaac had placed in front of him.

“Who?”

“You’ll find out,” Derek said after downing the drink. “Don’t you have a job to do?”

Isaac moved down the bar to start putting away glasses, muttering about Derek’s cryptic answers.

It was quarter past eight when Lydia arrived at Void, turning heads like she did every time she walked into the place.

“You’re late!” Derek called out to her, not standing to greet her.

Lydia sat on the bar stool next to Derek and picked up his glass that Isaac had just refilled. “I could have kept you waiting longer,” Lydia said, taking a drink of his whiskey.

“You keep telling yourself that,” Derek took his glass back.

Derek didn’t mention that he probably would have waited all night for her to turn up. Lydia didn’t mention that she was only late because she had changed five times before settling on an outfit.

“Wait, you’re date is with _Lydia_?” Isaac’s reaction didn’t disappoint Derek at all.

Lydia laughed. “Let’s not call it a date, he hasn’t done anything to impress me yet.” She stood up again and headed for the door.

“Yet,” Derek echoed, following her out the door.

“How do you do it?” Derek asked, they were walking down the street with no destination in mind. “I think I get how you chose them, but how do you overpower them? How do you get rid of their bodies?”

“Normally I kill them where I dump the bodies,” Lydia explained. “As for overpowering them.”

Lydia stepped in front of Derek and stopped him from walking. She crowded in close to him until their bodies were touching. Lydia looked up at him, holding eye contact, she had one hand splayed on his chest. Derek’s hands instinctively went to her hips.

“They never see it coming.” Lydia grinned and there was suddenly a sharp blade pressed against Derek’s neck. Derek’s breath caught in his throat. “One cut, slicing through the carotid and jugular, and then the windpipe,” Lydia mimed slicing Derek’s throat.

Derek swallowed hard as Lydia pulled the flick knife away from him. He brought his hand up to his neck to reassure himself that he wasn’t bleeding. Lydia just smiled at him sweetly.

They continued walking as though Lydia hadn’t just had her knife against Derek’s skin.

“Do they all go in the river?” Derek asked.

Lydia shook her head. “No. Some of get left in alleys, I make them look like robberies. Other’s I get more creative with. Remember that body those teenagers found in the old subway tunnels?”

“The one that had its face eaten off by rats?” Derek didn’t even bother to try to hide the laughter in his voice.

“One of mine,” Lydia confirmed. “And I bet his face isn’t the only thing the rats ate.”

The two of them waited for another couple heading in the opposite direction pass before they continued the conversation.

“What about you?” Lydia asked. “Who do you chose?”

“Women mostly,” Derek shrugged. “Sometimes men if I’m up for more of a challenge. I mostly pick them up from clubs around the city, never from Void though.”

“Do you always use the garrotte?”

“Sometimes I use a knife,” Derek told her. “Or just my hands to strangle them.”

“I used a gun a few times,” Lydia said. “Back when I was living in Boston, but the noise was too risky, and using a gun takes the fun out of it.”

“I hate guns,” Derek and Lydia stopped at a pedestrian crossing and waited for the lights to change. “And I thought you were from California?”

“I am,” Lydia looked at Derek, the sharp line of his jaw was illuminated by the headlights of a passing car. “I moved from California to Boston for college, then I dropped out and after a while I ended up here.”

“My sister and I moved here from California while I was in high school,” Derek said. “It was after our parents were killed,” Derek added because he knew the question would be coming.

“Where’s your sister now?” Lydia asked, skipping over the topic of Derek’s parents.

“Still living in the city. She’s working as a secretary right now,” Derek answered. “You’ve probably seen her around Void before, she comes in sometimes to bug me when I’m working.”

Lydia thought about it for a moment. She usually didn’t pay much attention to the women who came into Void. However the memory of one woman stuck out in her mind, because she was the only woman Lydia had seen Derek say more than a handful of words to.

“The tall, pretty brunette, right? She can actually get you to string a sentence together and Isaac flirts with her a lot?”

“Isaac flirts with everyone,” Derek laughed. “But yeah, that’s Laura. And if you haven’t noticed I can talk a lot if someone holds my interest.”

Lydia shouldered Derek lightly. “If that’s your idea of a compliment you might want to keep trying,” she said.

“Shall I compare thee to a summers’ day?” Derek started sarcastically.

Lydia rolled her eyes but there was a smile on her lips.

“So what about your family?” Derek asked.

“My parents divorced when I was in middle school,” Lydia told him. “They both know I’m in New York, they think if they give me some space I’ll eventually go back to college.”

They were passing the exit to a subway stop and a large group of people were coming up the stairs and spilling out onto the sidewalk. Derek put his arm around Lydia’s shoulders and pulled her closer to him, so they wouldn’t get pushed apart by the crowd. Lydia moved in closer to him without resistance. Once the sidewalk was clear again Derek didn’t remove his arm. Lydia didn’t make him.

“You know,” Derek mused. “I still want to see what you and that knife of yours can do to someone.”

“Chose one,” Lydia said, gesturing to people walking further ahead. They were coming to a part of the city with more restaurants and bars, so there were more people on the streets.

*

The woman Derek chose was brunette, not much taller than Lydia. The ID in her wallet told them she was 19 and from New Jersey.

Derek’s hand over her mouth muffled she screams as Lydia pulled her knife out of her bag; the steel blade looked shiny and sharp even in the darkness of the alley.

Lydia watched Derek’s face as in one, swift motion she slashed the other woman’s throat. A grin broke out across Derek’s face as blood poured from the wound, staining the woman’s dress.

*

Derek fucked Lydia breathless on the floor of her apartment. There was still blood under Lydia’s nails when she ran her hands over Derek’s bare shoulders.

Lydia didn’t object when Derek sucked bruises onto her collar bone and whispered ‘ _mine_ ’ against her skin. Instead she carded her fingers through his hair and pulled on the short locks, whispering the word back at him. Derek had definitely impressed her.

*

The next Saturday Lydia walked into Void and took her usual seat at the bar. However unlike every other time she had come into the bar, she spurned the advances from _every_ man who approached her.

Derek and Lydia didn’t talk much, however Derek kept her glass full and the smiles on both of their faces didn’t escape the notice of the other staff and regulars.

Kira kept trying to get information about the ‘date’ out of Lydia, and Isaac looked like he was sucking on a lemon every time Derek refilled Lydia’s glass.

Lydia was talking to Kira about a movie they both wanted to see when someone sat down on the stool next to Lydia. She turned around ready to tell another man to fuck off, but came face to face with a smiling brunette woman. The same woman Derek said was his sister, Laura.

“You’re Lydia, right?” The woman asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Lydia said.

“I’m Laura, Derek’s sister,” Laura stuck out her hand for Lydia to shake.

“Oh, it’s nice to meet you,” Lydia smiled, shaking the other woman’s hand. She was thoroughly confused as to what Laura was doing there, and how Laura knew who she was.  

“I’ve see you around before, but usually you’re with a man so I guess we’ve never gotten to talk before.”

“I didn’t know Derek had mentioned me to you,” Lydia looked around for Derek but he was nowhere to be seen.

“It took me a while to get anything out of him,” Laura admitted. “But he’s never this happy, so I kept pushing until he caved and told me and I quote: ‘ _kind of seeing someone’_. It took even longer for me to get a name.”

“So did you come down to suss me out?” Lydia laughed but she was still wary of the other woman. If Laura was anything like Derek then God only knew how dangerous she could be.

“Something like that.”

Isaac placed a drink in front of Laura, he was good at remembering people’s favourite drinks and often mixed them before the customer could even ask.

Derek finally appeared from the backroom carrying a box of bottles to restock the fridge under the bar. There was a smile on his face from hearing Lydia laughing, when he spotted his sister sitting next to Lydia his smile didn’t waver.

“Laura!” Derek put the box on the ground out of the way. “What are you doing here?” he was genuinely pleased to see her.

“I’m going out with some girls from work and decided to check up on my little brother first,” Laura stood up and hugged Derek across the bar. “Plus I wanted to see if I could meet the girl responsible for your good mood.”

Derek looked from his sister to Lydia who was smiling at the siblings’ exchange.

“I don’t know what you’ve done to him,” Laura told Lydia. “But I like happy Derek better,” Laura reached out to pinch her brother’s cheek. “I think you’re good for him.”

“Shut the fuck up Laura,” Derek said, but there was no heat behind his words.

“Love you too, Der,” Laura put money for the drink down on the bar. Derek tried to give it back to her but Laura stepped back out of his reach. “I’ve got to go meet the girls,” she said.

“Be careful,” Derek told her. “You never know what crazies are out and about.”

Lydia bit her knuckles so she wouldn’t laugh. She couldn’t help but wonder how many brothers had told their sisters the same thing before Derek had met and slaughtered them.

“Bye Derek,” Laura waved to him then to Lydia. “It was nice to meet you Lydia.”

“You too,” Lydia returned the wave.

“Well that was interesting,” Derek said once Laura was gone.

“I wasn’t expecting to meet the family so soon, but it went pretty well.”

“What next?” Derek put his elbows on the bar. “Sunday dinner with your parents?”

Lydia snorted. “They haven’t been in the same room since I graduated high school,” Lydia said. “So I don’t think you have to worry about suffering through that. Seriously though, I liked Laura, and I think she liked me?”

“Trust me, you’d know if she didn’t like you,” Derek said. “And I’m glad you both like each other.”

Derek and Lydia kissed across the top of the bar until Isaac poured ice cubes down the back of Derek’s shirt.

*

Lydia was lying on Derek’s bed, she was naked with a bottle of beer in her hand and hickeys across her breasts. Derek was playing with his computer, looking for some music to play. _Bad to the Bone_ started to play through the speakers and Lydia laughed.

“On the day I was born, the nurses all gathered ‘round, and they gazed in wide wonder at the joy they had found,” Derek sang, completely off key.

Lydia sat up and started to sing along. “The head nurse spoke up, said ‘leave this one alone’, she could tell right away.”

“That I was bad to the bone,” Lydia and Derek yelled together.

Lydia fell back against the bed, laughing again. Derek lay down on the bed next to her, a cigarette in his hand.

“I wish you’d quit,” Lydia told him.

Derek took a drag, exhaling through his nose. “Maybe one day,” he said.

Lydia looked up at the map of the United States that was tacked up on the wall over Derek’s bed. There were stickers on roughly a third of the states.

“Do the stickers mark where you’ve been or where you want to go?” Lydia asked.

“Where I’ve been,” Derek said. “I travelled to some of them with Laura, others I went to on my own.”

Lydia stood up on the bed and skimmed her fingers over the map. “I’ve only been to a few of these places.”

Derek rolled over onto his stomach. “We could go on a trip,” he suggested.

“Seriously?” Lydia looked down at him.

“Why not? It’s not like either of us have anything keeping us here.”

“What about your job? And Laura?”

“I had my resignation letter ready to hand in but then you walked into Void for the first time,” Derek gave her a sickly sweet smile.

Lydia rolled her eyes. She knew that wasn’t true, she knew he liked working at Void. 

“Laura?” Lydia prompted.

“It’s not like we’ll be gone forever,” Derek said. “Plus Laura would be thrilled if I told her I was going on a holiday with you.”

Lydia dropped back down to the mattress, spilling some of her beer in the process.  

“Imagine all the fun we could have on a road trip,” Lydia said.

“Imagine all the unsuspecting small town people we could have at our mercy.” Derek sat up so he and Lydia were both sitting cross-legged on the bed facing each other.

“That’s what I said,” Lydia said in mock annoyance.

Derek put his hand on the back of Lydia’s head and pulled her in for a kiss.

*

A loud knocking at the door woke Lydia up at 8:30 on a Wednesday morning. Considering Lydia had only gotten to bed at 5, she was less than happy about the disturbance. She rolled over a buried her head under her pillow, trying to ignore the noise, but the knocking only continued and someone was yelling on the other side of the door.

“I’m coming! Shut the fuck up!” Lydia yelled, pulling a t-shirt on over her head.

When Lydia opened the door Derek was standing in front of her, clothes dishevelled and eyes blood shot.

“What’s going on? She asked as Derek pushed past her into her apartment.

“Laura’s dead,” Derek didn’t look at Lydia.

“What?” Lydia closed the door and moved over to stand in front of him. “What happened?”

“The cops called me, apparently it was a mugging gone bad?” Derek shook his head. “They think it happened sometime late last night when she was on her way home from work, they didn’t find her body until 7 this morning.”

Lydia took Derek by the arm and lead him over to the small couch. “Do the police have any leads?”

Derek shook his head. “You know the statistics on how often they actually catch muggers.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Lydia admitted, she laced her fingers with Derek’s. “I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

Derek finally looked at Lydia. Her hair was mussed up and her face was free of makeup, she would look sweet and innocent if it wasn’t for the murder burning in her eyes. She was dangerous, a raging storm condensed down to five foot three inches, red hair, and a brilliant mind. Derek knew that if he asked her she would be on the streets with him, slaughtering every would-be-mugger until Derek got his revenge.

Derek pressed his mouth to Lydia’s, capturing her lips in a bruising kiss.

“Remember that road trip we were talking about?” Derek asked, and Lydia nodded. “I want to take that trip. After I bury Laura I want to get as far away from New York as I can, and I want you there with me.”

“Okay,” Lydia cupped the side of Derek’s face. “We’ll go somewhere neither of us has been before. We’ll travel until that map of yours is covered in stickers and we’re sick of each other.”

“I’ll never get sick of you.” Derek kissed Lydia again, smothering the words ‘ _you’re all I have left’_ that threatened to fall from his lips.

*

It was a week before the police released Laura’s body and Derek could bury her.

Lydia held Derek’s hand throughout the service. Lydia had never been to a funeral before. Derek had buried every member of his family.

They left straight from the cemetery, driving out of the city and heading south. Both of their apartments paid up until the end of the month, Derek had quit working at Void. Two small suitcases of clothes were in the trunk, most of their possessions had been sold for extra cash.

In the passenger seat Lydia turned on the radio, a pop song she didn’t know was playing. Derek reached over and put his hand on her thigh.

Neither of them looked back when they crossed the state line.

**Author's Note:**

> right now i dont have any more ideas for this series (although im very open to suggestions!! for this series or for any other dydia fics you'd like to see.)
> 
> as always you can find me on [tumblr](http://heavenlyhale.tumblr.com/)


End file.
